a fiber blog by jackie pawlowski

He’s a G Man

by jackie on February 5, 2009

I had really hoped to use cloth diapers with EJ. Everyone has their own reasons, but for me it just seems like an awful lot of (chemical and plastic-laden) garbage produced by one little baby in disposables. Wendy and Kellee gave me a training run-down over a summer breakfast at Wendy’s kitchen table. Johanna was encouraging through the comments. The resources are out there, and I know that cloth diapers have come a long way from sharp safety pins and soggy nappies.

We, however, don’t have laundry in our apartment. I am quite sure that the other people in our building would not appreciate washing their clothes in the same machine as EJ’s poopie diapers. Moreover, it’s hard enough to get all the laundry done, as bending over the machine is a little tricky with the Baby Bjorn on.

(I did look into a diaper service, but it seems there’s only one option in Manhattan – crazy, right? – and it gets only lukewarm reviews at best.)

So, I had resigned myself to killing the earth in the name of convenience when my friend Malaika gave us the super helpful and generous gift of a crapload of diapers. Packages of diapers of every kind – the whole wheat non-chlorine ones, the Whole Foods ones, Pampers, and very wonderfully the G Diaper.

Maya had mentioned them last summer, but having never seen them myself they were kind of an abstract until Malaika brought them over.

What makes them so cool is that they have the same construction as a cloth diaper (outer cover, waterproof liner), but instead of stuffing them with cotton or flannel, you can buy flushable inserts made from wood pulp. They’re fully biodegradable. In fact, you can even throw the wet ones on your compost pile, and they’ll break down in 2 – 3 months.

Awesome, huh?

They take a bit more work than disposables – the liners do get poopie (poopy?) and you have to rinse them when they do – but not nearly the work of cloth diapers, and best of all they don’t require laundry machines in your apartment.

Also? Poopie is my new favorite word.

Poopie poopie poopie.

(I may or may not be at the point of giddy delirium from extended sleep deprivation. Or else I have the sensibility of an 8 year old.)

I am so with Carole here – could EJ be any cuter? He’s just…beautiful. And I squee every time I see a new picture of him, srsly.

I don’t have much for you in the way of diaper advice, but the G Diapers seem to be a nice compromise for you – more environmentally friendly than the plastic laden disposables, but realistic to use given your circumstances.

And also – the one diaper service thing in Manhattan boggles my mind. Srsly. I just googled it, and even Fresno has a diaper service. Nutty.

May I also add that I giggled when I realized that George looks like he’s snorgling EJs head in the second picture? I miss George. We have a dog at the shelter named Pierre who reminds me a lot of George, which makes it very hard for me not to bring him home.

What an attractive soluton! I used liners with cloth diapers for kiddo #2, and it was way good. But like you, “needed” disposables for day care. Even with those I used liners because it just helped contain everything.
And having an 8 year old’s sensibility is a great thing. It’ll keep you young and prevent terminal seriousness!

Hey Jackie, I have been reading up on your recent posts this morning and a lot of things occur to me (the year that I had level 1 Klingon and how much, these 17 years later, I really do miss those days. Hard to imagine). Anyway, the one thing I wondered is if you have a babysitter to give you a break. If not, I know one that is really close to you. My daughter lives in Union City, works in Manhattan and loves to babysit. She is 23 and could also use an extra few bucks now and then. She is a great kid, you’d love her and maybe you could show her that the younger set knits and it is cool. Heh. She is still knitting a scarf she started a while ago, maybe that will get finished someday.